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So You Want to Read YA?: Guest Post from Author Cecil Castellucci

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Written by: Kelly on May 13, 2013.

This week’s contribution to “So You Want to Read YA?” comes from author Cecil Castellucci. She’s straight to the point, too! 


Cecil Castellucci is the author of books and graphic novels for young adults including Boy Proof, The Plain Janes, First Day on Earth, The Year of the Beasts and Odd Duck. Her picture book, Grandma’s Gloves, won the California Book Award Gold Medal. Her short stories have been published in Strange Horizons, YARN, Tor.com, and various anthologies including, Teeth, After and Interfictions 2. She is the YA editor of the Los Angeles Review of Books, Children’s Correspondence Coordinator for The Rumpus and a two time Macdowell Fellow. She lives in Los Angeles. She can be found on Twitter @misscecil and at http://www.misscecil.com. 



We all know why we’re here. 
As a lady who moves fluidly between the young adult world, comic book world and the adult literary scene everyone always tells me how much they love YA.  But they haven’t actually read that much of it.  They’ve mostly read the few standards that everyone reads and says they’ve read to keep up with the Jones’s and sound cool at cocktail parties:  Twilight, Harry Potter, The Golden Compass, The Hunger Games and The Fault in our Stars.  And while we all agree those books are good to have a toe dipped into our fabulous pool, I really feel that we need to get some other YA books into adult land heavy rotation.
So what to suggest to people as a place to go to after they’ve whet your appetite with the regular books that everyone’s already heard of?  In my list I’m sticking to older classics that have stood the test of time by being out already for a few years.

1)    Feed by MT Anderson
2)    Ash by Malinda Lo

3)    The Chaos Walking trilogy by Patrick Ness
4)    Swallow Me Whole by Nate Powell (*he also drew my book The Year of the Beasts which is adult friendly)

5)    Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
6)    Flygirl by Sherri L Smith

7)    The Ruby in Smoke by Phillip Pullman
8)    Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor

9)    When you Reach Me by Rebecca Stead
10)  I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

Comments

  1. This is a fantastic list. I always love seeing Sally Lockhart get attention, and both Feed and When You Reach Me are books that I read in one sitting and loved. And Flygirl is a fantastic recommendation for anyone who loved Code Name Verity. Really, I just love all the books on this list. Love, love, love.